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The Arts Intel Report

World of Secrets: The Abercrombie Guys

Founded in 1892, Abercrombie & Fitch was once a lofty name in upscale American sporting goods. Although the company closed in 1977, it was bought by Limited Brands in 1988, who then hired Mike Jeffries to reboot its image. Every cool kid in the noughties wore the company’s initialed polos and sweatshirts, and the aggressively-scented stores popped up in every shopping center. In 2013, A&F’s C.E.O. Mike Jeffries famously drew controversy for saying the company’s clothes were made for “cool, good-looking people.” Ten years later, a new, more insidious controversy has attached itself to Jeffries. In World of Secrets: The Abercrombie Guys, host Rianna Croxford uncovers a story of choreographed sex parties, envelopes of cash, aspiring male models muzzled with NDAs, and more components of a secretive ring run for years by Jeffries and his partner, Matthew Smith. The podcast, released this fall, spurred a civil class action complaint that claims the total number of Jeffries’s victims may have been over 100. —Paulina Prosnitz

Photo courtesy of BBC UK